Thinking about combat mechanisms
MÖRKTOBER, combat mechanisms, victory conditions, and Call to Adventure
TL;DR Summary
🎃 MÖRKTOBER prompts are coming
⚔️ Thinking about combat mechanisms
🥇 Board games and victory conditions
🎲 Recently played: Call to Adventure
🎃 MÖRKTOBER prompts are coming
Pumpkin Spice Lattes are back at Starbucks, so you know what that means… MÖRKTOBER is coming!
Each day in October, make something for MÖRK BORG inspired by the prompt list and share it. An item, scroll, weapon, class, or anything else. Tag it #MÖRKTOBER.
Last year’s event saw some awesome creations (ex. 1, ex. 2, ex. 3), and was enjoyed by many! There’s even a #morktober channel on the official MÖRK BORG Discord server!
This year’s prompts will be released on Friday, September 1, 2023. That gives everyone a chance to digest them, and spread the word. The website will be updated when MÖRKTOBER begins on Sunday, October 1, 2023.
If you play MÖRK BORG, CY_BORG, Pirate Borg or any other Borg TTRPG, join in!
You can also grab the Exeunt Press compilation for free!
MÖRKTOBER is an independent production by Exeunt Press and is not affiliated with Ockult Örtmästare Games or Stockholm Kartell. It is published under the MÖRK BORG Third Party License. MÖRK BORG is copyright Ockult Örtmästare Games and Stockholm Kartell.
⚔️ Thinking about combat mechanisms
Writing Skeleton Code Machine posts is my way of thinking through ideas, considering other solutions, and just trying to spark my creativity. Much of that focus over the last few months has been on combat systems.
You can see this in the weekly Skeleton Code Machine topics, and I thought making a list of them might be helpful!
Here are the combat related Skeleton Code Machine posts:
Line of sight: Spaces and zones in Unmatched
Second place isn’t so bad: Push your luck combat in Wonderland’s War
Cooperative action points: Punching frog monsters and sharing action cubes in Hellboy: The Board Game
Opposed rolls: Using opposed dice rolls as a resolution mechanism in tabletop games
Losing on purpose with the Loki strategy: Card drafting and winning Blood Rage by losing battles
Random turn order systems: Unit activation in For What Remains
Zero luck combat: Resolving battles via sealed-bid auction in Rising Sun
Giant enemy crab: Attacking weak points for massive damage
Therg fights a skeleton: Simulating simple MÖRK BORG combat
I might actually go back and re-read some of those myself!
Skeleton Code Machine is a weekly publication that explores tabletop game mechanisms in board games and roleplaying games. The goal is to spark your creativity as a game designer or enthusiast, and perhaps think differently about how games work. Subscribe to explore the intersection of board games, role playing games, and the mechanisms behind them.
🥇 Board games and victory conditions
After hearing about it via Geoff Engelstein’s The Many Faces of Victory post, I just watched designer Amabel Holland’s video essay called Do board games need victory conditions? that was posted a couple weeks ago.
Here’s a link:
It’s an absolutely fascinating exploration of victory conditions, the nature of games, and of how and why we play games. The last time I remember a video having such an impact on my thoughts about games was Cole Wehrle’s Defense of King-Making at GDC.
The examples discussed include This Guilty Land (Holland, 2018), That Others May Live: Combat Search and Rescue - Vietnam (Smith, 2023), Endurance (Holland, 2023), and the cleverly named Velocirapture (Allred, 2023). All of which I now desperately want to try.
I’m not going to summarize the essay, because it would lose too much in the translation. Check it out.
🎲 Recently played: Call to Adventure
I played Call to Adventure (O’Neal & O’Neal, 2019) for the first time in a long time. It’s a light game where 1-4 players compete to create the hero with the greatest destiny. Each card builds your character’s story through three acts.
Mine started as an orphan settler, sole survivor of a tragedy, who became a brawler via confrontation with a childhood rival. They later turned to a life of crime after concealing a crime. All was not lost, however, because after climbing a colossus to save a loved one, they discovered they were the heir to the throne!
Call to Adventure is a great example of what the intersection of board games and roleplaying games can be. I see players choosing cards because “that’s what my character would do” rather than trying to accumulate the most victory points.
You might see an expanded discussion of this in a future Skeleton Code Machine post!
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- E.P. 💀
I did a couple art pieces for morktober last year. I think my favorite combat mechanic is rolling vs.